


The Vault of Data

by meridian_rose (meridianrose)



Category: Da Vinci's Demons
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Space, Captain Riario, Community: trope_bingo, Gen, Leo flirts with everyone, Trope Bingo Round 6, Zita lives, Zo and Zita save the day, smuggler Leonardo, stupid amounts of attempting a key/data capsule parallel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-03 05:27:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6598588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meridianrose/pseuds/meridian_rose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU take on some of the events in S2; Ima believes that Leo and Riario both hold the data capsules that will unlock a vault of incalculable wisdom. Captain Riario thinks they're going to die on this spaceship. Smuggler Leo is pretty confident they'll find a way to survive. Zo, Nico, and Lt Commander Zita are probably plotting.<br/>For the  prompt 'AU: space' and inspired by the <a href="http://toxixpumpkin.tumblr.com/post/108022477839">Ridiculous Sentence Prompts</a> line "I can’t believe I’m sitting in space jail with you of all people.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Vault of Data

"Did you ever think it would end like this?"

Leo scoffed. "It's not the end. Don't be so melodramatic. They won't kill us – they grabbed up your escape pod after they destroyed your ship, didn't they? I just - I can’t believe I’m sitting in space jail with you of all people.”

Riario shuffled about on the plastic seat opposite Leo. They both wore tight trousers and long boots and were of a similar height and complexion, and Leo had once used this resemblance to try and pass himself off as Captain Riario, with some success.

There were differences of course, not least since Leo had grown out his hair. As always, Riario wore a black velvet coat with the Empire's insignia hand-stitched onto the breast, buttoned up to his neck – appropriate, Leo thought. He preferred his open blue shirt worn under a battered brown leather jacket.

Riario sighed. "Jail implies some sort of justice system. This, I'd wager, is more of a dungeon."

"Semantics," Leo said.

Riario chewed at his lip. "Why did they separate us from the others?"

"You know damn well why," Leo said, and it wasn’t because he'd picked up the obscure dialect their captors were using and tried to flirt with their captain. (Naturally she'd turned out to be the only one who spoke their tongue. Flirting in that language hadn't gone any better.) His fingers went to the cord at his neck and he caressed the precious data capsule suspended there with his thumb.

Riario's hand went to his own throat.

"If you'd handed over your data capsule you wouldn't be here," Leo said. "The two capsules were meant for me."

"Such arrogance," Riario said. "To imagine an officer of the Empire would hand over this treasure to a bastard space pirate!"

"I'm not a pirate! I'm a smuggler."

"That will make all the difference at your trial," Riario sneered.

"I thought Captain Ima was going to kill us before I ever got to an Empire courtroom?"

That shut Riario up for a while. Leo sighed. As prison cells went this was a more than serviceable one. Not inescapable, but more of a challenge than he liked. His thoughts strayed to Zo and Nico, held elsewhere on the vessel, presumably with Riario's second in command, Lieutenant Commander Zita.

"Riario?"

Riario looked over at him.

"On the slim chance we don't get out of this," Leo began, planning how best to unfasten that ridiculous coat, but his seduction was prematurely ended when Ima knocked on the transparent wall of their cell.

"It is time," she said. Leo counted the security officers accompanying her. The odds were against them. He exchanged a look with Riario, who'd come to the same conclusion. This was not the moment to fight.

* * *

 

Riario and Leo were separated which increased Leo's anxiety. Despite his assurances to Riario, it was entirely possible that Ima planned to take the data capsules, despite the risk of losing the information. It was said that if someone touched the casing the capsule became keyed to their DNA, and that removing the capsule from them triggered a countdown. Leo kept the capsule on a cord around his neck, as did Riario, both believing the DNA lock to be plausible.

Once the countdown began both capsules had to be plugged into a powerful enough computer. If the respective passwords were then given the vault would be unlocked. If the countdown reached zero before this happened, the data would be irretrievably corrupted.

The vault was supposedly some sort of repository of lost knowledge. It would be to today's civilisation what FTL drives had been to their ancestors. Riario believed no one should have that much power. Leo thought everyone should. The vault was also widely believed to be a myth. Yet through a series of increasingly improbable events, here was Leo with one data capsule and Riario the other, each holding half of the whole encryption key.

To Leo's surprise he was taken not to an interrogation room but to what appeared to be basic living quarters. There were no windows and he was missing the sight of the stars by now, but there was a bed, and a table holding a plate of fruit and a glass of a red liquid. Ima pressed the glass into Leo's hand. She grazed her knuckles across his cheek.

"Drink," she said.

Even to Leo this seemed like a trap.

"Aren't you joining me?" he asked.

"This is your test," she said. "It is a hallucinogenic compound that will let your subconscious reveal if you are the one meant to access the locked vault. Before you refuse, remember that I have your friends held hostage."

There weren't many choices here and honestly, Leo did want to open the vault. His father believed Leo's mother had encoded some of the data; she'd certainly had something to do with the keys. This was his birthright, the reason that Leo had been furious when Riario had shown up with one of the precious capsules.

Leo swallowed the thick liquid and lost track of reality soon after, not that uncommon an experience for him. Still, this was more frightening than the usual creative visions he was accustomed to, as he found himself faced with an older version of himself who was rotting in an Empire prison, walked amongst the shades of the dead, and found himself fleeing a darkness that pursued him relentlessly.

Next thing he was certain of, he was on the floor, Riario leaning over him. There was a bitter taste on Leo's lips. Leo blinked. The horrifying visions were gone, the room the same blank cabin he'd been led to.

Riario was a mess, hair mussed up, his jacket discarded, and if Leo wasn't mistaken, he'd been crying, eyes still red and cheeks damp.

"What?" Leo said, and given that his mouth tasted like he'd been chewing a ball of wool he thought that quite the accomplishment.

"They told me you'd been poisoned," Riario managed to choke out. "I had to find the antidote. But to get it I had to fight my way through a maze."

Leo sat up, wincing as various muscles protested. "You saved me?" Had it really been poison and not just a hallucinogen? Not that anything, oxygen and water included, weren't toxic in large enough quantities. He'd certainly had visions and he had to admit his heart had been racing and he'd feared death one way or another.

"Zita," Riario said and the word broke Leo's heart because it was obvious that Riario's was already broken. "She was the last test. I killed her."

"No," Leo said, because no-one was supposed to die for him. He was not worth anyone's sacrifice.

The door opened and Ima entered, flanked as always by her guards. "You have passed the tests," she said, tossing Riario's jacket to him. "Come with me."

* * *

 

On the bridge, Riario and Leo inserted their keys into the slots underneath the main screen. Two pictures appeared on the screen. On Riario's side, a Hanged Man, and beneath it a dashed line with a question mark.

"Sacrifice," Riario said, the bitterness in his tone like a knife to Leo's flesh.

On the other side of the screen was another dashed line and the clue had a man sitting alone in a cave, head bowed.

"Humility," Leo said.

The screen changed. Zeroes and ones flashed across it in a dizzying pattern.

"No," Ima yelled. "What is this? This is supposed to be all the wisdom of the universe!"

Leo watched the screen, eyes scanning back and forth. His fingers danced in the air and his lips moved soundlessly.

The ship was rocked by an explosion.

"What was that?" Ima demanded.

Leo didn't take his eyes from the screen but he said, softly, "Zo."

A moment later the doors to the bridge opened and the security officers, pilot, and Ima, were all felled by blasts from a stun gun. Zita strode in, head held high.

"Sir," she called to Riario. "We have to go." To Leo, she said, "Zoroaster has caused a distraction and Nico is readying your ship. I was sent to fetch you both."

"One minute," Leo said, staring at the screen.

"I thought you were dead," Riario said distantly.

Zita gave him a look. "You trained me yourself, sir. A little incarceration is nothing to fear."

"It was a holographic projection," Leo said, things clicking into place; that was why they'd drugged him but not Riario, because Leo was known for seeing through illusions. That whole Emperor Lorenzo Has No Clothes On incident had caused him a lot of trouble and gained him quite the reputation.

Later he would think more on how much of their trials had truly prepared them for using the data to unlock the vault and how much was Ima screwing with them. Later they would have to deal with Riario's guilt over having killed even a holographic Zita. Right now, they had to leave.

"Leonardo," Zita snapped. "Zoroaster told me to stun you if I had to, and drag your stubborn ass to the ship."

"One minute – there," Leo said. The pattern had begun repeating. "Now we can go." 

* * *

 

Zita led them to Leo's ship, taking out another three guards with impressive accuracy.

"Officers of the Empire aboard this rust bucket," Riario groused, reluctant to board.

"Your ship was destroyed, come aboard or stay here," Zo yelled from his place at the loading ramp. "I vote the latter."

"Don't make me stun you, sir," Zita said.

Leo clapped Riario on the shoulder. "I like her."

Riario gave in. Soon they were all aboard and even as the ship came under fire Nico had them underway, putting distance between them and Ima's vessel with a skill Leo had underappreciated until this moment.

"It was a map," Leo said to anyone who cared to listen. "All that data was a map, just in binary form. I can recreate the data. I have an eidetic memory."

"Yet you can never remember to refuel the ship or empty out the garbage disposal," Zo groused from the co-pilot's chair.

"Where does the map lead?" Riario asked.

Leo shrugged. "I guess we'll find out. Are you coming with us, or shall we drop you at the next moon and let the Empire know where you are?"

Riario looked to Zita, but she gave no indication of a preference.

"Make the map," he told Leo at last. "Then we'll decide."

"Decide first," Leo said. "Look what happened last time you thought to beat me to the prize." His eyes flicked to Zita. 

When even that didn't persuade Riario, Leo added, "We do this together or I make sure you never interfere again."

It was an empty threat. Leo could no more kill Riario in cold blood than he could have killed Zo or Nico. If he'd been faced with Riario's test, he would have failed.

Riario sighed. "I want that knowledge as much as you do. For now," he said, "we shall be allies."

He held out a hand but Leo pulled him into a rough hug. Whether Riario really had saved his life or he'd only thought he was doing so, the intent was the same. Leo would not forget that in a hurry. Humility had been his lesson and he would learn from it.

"Allies," Leo said before he released Riario. He winked at Zita and before she turned her back, he caught the glimpse of a smile quirk her lips.


End file.
